Chaplain Kathie on WDJA Saturday

A couple of days ago I received an email from Tom about my website and the work I do for veterans. He invited me to be on his radio show for Saturday and I am totally amazed to be included in on such a group to be on the show.

TOM GRAVER REPORTS ON MATTERS NEAR & DEAR TO THE MILITARY, THEIR FAMILIES AND THE PUBLIC

Listen to him on the G I Radio Network

Saturday from 12:00 NOON to 2 on

POWERTALK 1420 A M WDJA

People call listen through out the world by going to http://www.wdja.com/ or http://www.giradio.us/.

CALL IN LINE: 877-278-1420

Dr. Eugene Lipov

Stellate ganglion block offers hope for PTSD treatments

About Raymond Cralle
Raymond Crallé has been a practicing Physical Therapist for 39 years, most of that time in his own private practice. There is no physician ownership since Crallé was one of the original private practices in Florida founded by his mother Ruth Crallé in 1957. Raymond graduated from the University of Iowa in 1971 following service with the Marines during the Vietnam conflict. Raymond served on many committees in the Florida Physical Therapy Associations twice as Chairman of the Private Practice Section. He sold controlling interest in 13 sports medicine centers in 1992 to specialize in treatment for Brain injury, Sports injury and has developed an international reputation in these areas of practice. Mr. Cralle works with many of the Polo team members from Wellington, he was featured in “ Polo Magazine” season guide, 2006.

Crallé’s advanced training in Neuro rehab has found him as an annual presenter to international symposiums on rehabilitation for brain injury and cerebral palsy. He was also featured in Cerebral Palsy Magazine regarding his advanced work with such children.

Cralle' has added Hyperbaric Oxygen Treament to his practice and has had amazing results. (www.ORCCAHBO.com)

The 501(3)(C)corporation will allow us to solicit funds to further extend staff, equipment and service for the underprivileged. Benefactors will allow us to support research, arrange for Physician Specialists visits and provide for adaptive chairs, braces and other needs.
We are excited about our future because of our special “Angels” here on earth.

Navy Seal James "Patches" Watson -One of the FIRST Navy Seals!

Keith DeMello "Battleship Missouri at Pearl Harbor
Captain Howard - National Navy UDT - Seal Museum


And then there is me.


I am a Senior Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains, IFOC.org and Chaplain of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, Chapter 16 Orlando. Aside from being the wife of a Vietnam veteran, fast approaching 26 years, I've been helping veterans and their families to survive and heal PTSD since I met my husband.

I track PTSD around the country and reports focused on veterans, the troops, National Guards and Reservists, police officers, firefighters and trauma survivors on this blog. I also make videos on PTSD so that people find understanding, support and comfort on what it took me over 20 years to learn.


I have a Charter of the IFOC and seek donations to support my work, so please, if you find what I do to be worthy of support, don't wait for someone else to do it.

I am the author of For the Love of Jack, about 18 years of living with PTSD. This book is for free on my website, Nam Guardian Angel and I have over 30 videos to watch on this blog currently housed on Great Americans.

I will be focusing on the spiritual healing of our veterans since it is my greatest belief this is a spiritual wound and any healing must include the spiritual part of being human. Each one of us walks away from traumatic events either feeling blessed or cursed. We believe God spared us, saved us, was watching over us, or God abandoned us, judged us, punished us by what we had to endure. I've been exposed to all kinds of traumatic events other than combat. My experiences had allowed me to see my husband in a different way because I connected the events in my life to his. The more I worked with veterans the more I was able to understand that they experienced traumatic events for their entire deployment into combat zones. For them, it was not just a matter of the events themselves, but the fact they were in positions where they feared the events could happen at any moment.

As I studied PTSD it became a quest to understand why I didn't have PTSD. There are two factors that later training helped me to understand. As an IFOC chaplain, I was trained to respond to crisis situations moments after they happen. This is done so that people can find someone to talk to. In my life, I had a big Greek family where things were talked about until no one needed to talk about them anymore. Plenty of ears to listen and surrounded by people I felt safe to talk to made all the difference. The other factor was my faith and the understanding that I was loved by God and because of my faith, I was not alone. I am Christian but I do not dismiss the faith of other people. The Bible is filled with accounts from the Hebrews about warfare and spiritual crisis. History is rich with accounts of war and many different faiths addressing the spiritual aspects of being human.

One of the biggest things to come out of research in recent years is the development of the frontal lobe and how it is not fully mature until the age of 25. This helps us to understand that as the age of recruits into the military right out of high school has some benefits, it should also cause greater awareness of the need to have someone to talk to right after traumatic events. There is a lot of support out there for this because as they trained their bodies to endure, addressing the crisis right after it happens helps to train their brains to recover from them.

I also believe that we will see the suicide, attempted suicide, self-medicating, homelessness among veterans and divorce rates continue to rise if this is not addressed. As we read about the calls flooding into the Suicide Prevention Hotline, there are lives saved but when there were over 200,000 calls in three years, that should have been a alarm heard around the country. To have that many veterans reach the point of that kind of despair they feel the need to call is the greatest indicator of the failures of the past being continued.

The other issue that has to be addressed is family involvement. Most families have no idea what PTSD and what little others do know does not help them to understand how their reactions can either help the veteran heal or can harm them more. They need to be fully informed just as much as they need to be fully involved in the mental healthcare provided. Doctors only know what the veteran tells them and most of the time, they hold back too much. Families have to be included to set the record straight for the doctor to know what the reality is.

I hope you tune in tomorrow and listen to the show to hear more and about other things being done to help our veterans heal. It will be broadcast to the troops serving overseas.